Related News/Archive

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Like most Americans, Michael Bradley was glued to the television watching election results deep into Wednesday morning. Bradley is captain of the U.S. men's team, which begins the final round of World Cup qualifying Friday. It will be the first major competition for any national team since the election of Donald Trump as president, and the opponent is Mexico, the Americans' fiercest rival and a country Trump roundly criticized during his campaign.

The importance of the moment wasn't lost on Bradley, who worries the rancor of the campaign could spill over into Columbus' tiny Mapfre Stadium, where 22,000 U.S. and Mexican fans will be jammed together.

"I would hope (fans) give every person in the stadium the respect that they deserve, whether they're American, Mexican, neutral," he said Wednesday. "U.S.-Mexico is the biggest game that we play. It's the most special, the most passionate."

More soccer:Landon Donovan wasn't ready to decide whether he would extend his MLS comeback for another season with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Three days after its elimination from the playoffs, the Galaxy also had no news on the career plans of Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane. Gerrard was expected to make an announcement later this week. Keane planned to wait until later in the month.

horses

It's official: California Chrome to retire

California Chrome will retire in time for the 2017 breeding season, Taylor Made Farm president Duncan Taylor said.

Second in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Saturday, America's all-time richest racehorse is expected to begin his stallion career in February at the major Kentucky farm, Taylor said at Keeneland's November breeding stock sale late Tuesday in Lexington, Ky.

Chrome's stud fee per breeding for his first season will be $40,000, conservative for a Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner (2014).

"We wanted to make it affordable so he would have a full book (of prospective mares), but we need the right mares," Perry Martin, Chrome's co-owner and breeder, said before the announcement.

et cetera

Baseball: The players union fired arbitrator Fredric Horowitz after Horowitz ruled against it in an injury assignment case involving Dodgers infielder Charlie Culberson, the Associated Press reported. The players association declined to comment, spokesman Greg Bouris said. Horowitz, 68, started in June 2012. In his most notable decision, he reduced Alex Rodriguez's 211-game suspension to 162 games, a penalty imposed for violations of baseball's drug agreement and labor contract. … Commissioner Rob Manfred said he didn't think Donald Trump's election as president would slow the sport's plans to stage more events in Latin America. Also, MLB hopes to establish a process that would allow Cuban residents to sign big-league contracts. "Haven't heard anything with respect to the Cuba issue that would suggest that there's going to be any change, and I think we're all familiar with things (Trump) said about Mexico," Manfred said. "I think we need to wait and see what actually happens." … The Angels agreed to a $1 million, one-year deal to keep reliever Andrew Bailey, the first of this year's 157 free agents to reach a deal.